In 1920, fresh off a tour of duty in World War I, the West Virginia native walked off a French freighter and into one of the worst job markets in US history. With Prohibition in full swing, a well-paid friend explained that bootlegged booze was bringing a pretty penny. Especially with DC politicos.

(George) Cassiday would wheel his heavy luggage, overfilled with liquor, into the House Office Building, tip his trademark topper to the door guards, and make his rounds of discreet bureau drawers and library shelves—responding to 25 calls a day, on average, from thirsty lawmakers.

Cassiday got busted and moved his bootlegging to the Capitol lawn, eventually having to start making his own. That’s the story that Michael Lowe and son-in-law John Uselton are building a brand around at the District’s first legal distillery since before Prohibition. Their gin is available at several liquor stores, including Ace Beverage where my friend Joe works. I haven’t tried it yet, but probably will when the weather warms up again.

Another distillery, Catocin Creek in Purcellville, Va. distills white and rye whiskeys, gin, and brandy. I have not tried that either, but want to do so sometime in the New Year.

Photo by I.C. Ligget – The control cities are weak, should be Del Mem Br/Baltimore/Washington
Working to end the bottlenecks – The Inky
The extension of the New Jersey Turnpike car-bus-truck lanes southward to Exit 6, the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange is progressing well.

Billed as the biggest ongoing roadway project in the United States, the undertaking will transform the turnpike into a 12-lane highway from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Connector at Exit 6 in Burlington County to Exit 9 in New Brunswick, where it is already that wide.

Trucks and buses will be restricted to the three outer lanes in each direction; only cars will be allowed in the three inside lanes in each direction.

Currently, about 130,000 vehicles a day use the 35-mile turnpike stretch in the work zone.

With a price tag of $2.5 billion – all of it from tolls – the widening work has created thousands of jobs on and off site since work began in 2009 and is costlier than any individual highway project that was undertaken with federal stimulus funding.

The Turnpike Authority’s chief engineer, Rich Raczynski, says the project is two-thirds complete and on target to be finished by fall 2014…

…Actual planning for the project dates to 2004, and Raczynski said the intervening financial crisis had worked in the authority’s favor.

“The economic collapse helped us,” he said. “The heavy-construction industry in the state of New Jersey basically dried up, and we were the only ones pushing work out at the time. “When you get contractors who are desperate for work, they really sharpen their pencils,” Raczynski said. “We’ve been averaging 20 percent below our estimates with the bids we’ve been getting. The actual project cost right now is lower than we anticipated.”

So, the NJ Turnpike is going widen 35 miles of roadway — essentially a whole new road parallel to the existing one in 10 years. The PA Turnpike is taking over 30 to build an interchange and parallel crossing of the Delaware River. #NJFTW

IT SEEMS A LOT MORE REAL now that we have seen the team in action. However, some are still not really convinced that after so much waiting, D.C. baseball is finally happening. I understand where they are coming from, I think I will know it is all official when I see Jose Guillen or Cristan Guzman saying “where your job is your credit” in an Easterns Automotive TV spot.